The present invention relates generally to self-aligning bearings having a ball-like inner member with a convex outer surface and an outer member having an inner surface with a complementary concave spherical inner face. These types of bearings, which are commonly called "spherical bearings," have been utilized in industry for a substantial period of time. The technological evolution of these type bearings has been directed more in the terms of material composition of its various component parts rather than toward basic changes in design concepts. Accordingly, the design advances in spherical bearings have not been substantial in nature and thereby presently limiting their applications.
One area in which the spherical bearings have been extensively applied is the aircraft industry. This is due to the spherical bearing self-aligning characteristic. A typical such application is marrying of a spherical bearing to a landing gear strut or member of an airplane. In this application the outer race is commonly press-fitted into a housing or the like rendering it difficult to remove and/or maintain. When any such maintenance is required, such as replacing of the ball, the entire bearing assembly including the inner and outer race member would have to be removed and replaced by an entirely new bearing assembly. Such an operation could entail substantial expense and downtime of the entire aircraft.
There are a number of prior art spherical bearings which have been addressed to this kind of problem. One such type prior art bearing is the "messerschmidt" bearing. A concept of this bearing is that the ball can be removed in the field without disassembling the entire bearing, that is, removing the outer race member from its mounting.
One may refer to my prior invention in this general field as embodied in U.S. Pat. No. 3,365,249, patented Jan. 23, 1968 and entitled "Spherical Bearing." This particular bearing may be disassembled in the field but may not be "adjusted" without the provision of new component parts. Such an adjustment may include the varying of the bearing tolerance between the two race (i.e., inner and outer) members which may change during operational usage. One may also refer to my more recent invention also in this field as embodied in U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 530,697, filed Dec. 9, 1974, and entitled "Spherical Bearing With Slotted Key"; assigned Docket No. 2194. This invention contemplates a partial slot in the key which may be used to vary the bearing tolerances.